Reports in the literature conflict as to whether bilingual children are
privileged with respect to metalinguistic awareness. Although some studies
claim that all bilingual children attain metalinguistic awareness earlier
than monolinguals, others suggest that such an advantage does not occur, or
is only found for balanced bilinguals (those with equal proficiency in
their two languages, e.g., Cummins, 1978), or on certain types of tasks
(those which require high control of attention, as compared to high
analysis of language, e.g., Bialystok, 1986). However, the majority of
these studies were conducted with bilingual children who spoke
typologically related languages, and with tests administered in only one of
the two languages. Therefore, the present study investigates whether
relative language typology or language of testing affects the bilingual
advantage in metalinguistic awareness.

Participants were 59 children in grades K and 1: 22 English monolinguals
and 37 Arabic-English bilinguals whose two languages are typologically
unrelated. All participants completed an English proficiency test and six
English metalinguistic awareness tests (two for each of phonological, word,
and syntactic awareness). All bilinguals also completed an Arabic
proficiency test and six equivalent Arabic metalinguistic awareness tests.
Bilinguals were categorized as balanced or unbalanced based on their
proficiency test scores.

Results on both English and Arabic metalinguistic awareness tasks
indicated no consistent differences in performance attributable to language
experience (i.e. monolingual, balanced bilingual, unbalanced bilingual),
even when tests were grouped according to those that required high analysis
vs. high control. However, there were significant age-related differences
across virtually all tasks, with children in grade 1 outperforming children
in grade K.
These results are only partially consistent with Bialystok (1986).
As she predicts, monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ in their
performance on tasks requiring high analysis. However, bilinguals did not
outperform monolinguals on tasks requiring high control. They also
partially support Cummins (1978): unbalanced bilinguals experienced neither
negative nor positive effects in metalinguistic awareness. However,
balanced bilinguals did not outperform monolinguals or unbalanced
bilinguals. In sum, this study suggests that children's ability to solve
metalinguistic tasks improves with age and/or school experience
irrespective of task demands, bilingual experience, relative typology of
the two languages, or language of testing.
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